Top 12 Registered Respiratory Therapist Skills to Put on Your Resume
In respiratory therapy, being memorable isn’t about noise—it’s about precision. The right skills, shown clearly, matched to real clinical work. Below you’ll find twelve core competencies Registered Respiratory Therapists should spotlight on a resume to show capability, judgment, and readiness for the bedside and beyond.
Registered Respiratory Therapist Skills
- Ventilator Management
- Pulmonary Function Testing
- Oxygen Therapy
- Aerosol Medication Administration
- Airway Management
- CPAP/BiPAP
- Mechanical Ventilation
- Arterial Blood Gas Analysis
- Neonatal Resuscitation
- Patient Education
- Pulmonary Rehabilitation
- ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation)
1. Ventilator Management
Ventilator management is the art and science of selecting modes, dialing in settings, and adjusting strategy to keep oxygenation and ventilation on target while protecting fragile lungs. It’s constant reassessment, not set-and-forget.
Why It's Important
Done well, ventilator management supports gas exchange, avoids injury, shortens ventilation time, and reduces complications. It’s central to patient stability and safe liberation from the vent.
How to Improve Ventilator Management Skills
Sharpening this skill rests on evidence, vigilance, and teamwork.
Use lung-protective strategies: Low tidal volumes (around 6 ml/kg predicted body weight) and plateau pressures under 30 cmH2O for ARDS. Watch driving pressure and consider recruitment maneuvers only when appropriate.
Match mode to patient: Pressure support, APRV, or volume-targeted modes—choose based on mechanics, effort, and synchrony. Adjust rise time, trigger, and cycling to quell asynchrony.
Monitor relentlessly: Trends in SpO2, EtCO2, ABGs, hemodynamics, and ventilator waveforms tell the story. Let them guide changes rather than hunches.
Prevent complications: Elevate the head of bed, oral care, early mobility, and sedation minimization to reduce VAP and delirium.
Plan for liberation: Daily safety screens, spontaneous breathing trials, cuff leak checks when indicated, and a clear extubation plan.
Collaborate: Align with intensivists, nurses, and rehab. Shared plans avoid mixed signals and missed steps.
How to Display Ventilator Management Skills on Your Resume
2. Pulmonary Function Testing
Pulmonary Function Testing (PFT) quantifies lung volumes, airflow, and gas transfer. It’s methodical work that hinges on quality efforts and standardized technique.
Why It's Important
PFTs help confirm diagnoses, phenotype disease, guide therapy, and track progression. Accurate tests, clean data—better decisions.
How to Improve Pulmonary Function Testing Skills
Precision is everything.
Follow standards: Adhere to current ATS/ERS recommendations for spirometry, lung volumes, and DLCO. Consistency beats guesswork.
Maintain equipment: Daily calibration checks, leak tests, biological controls, and timely service keep results trustworthy.
Coach like a pro: Clear, brief cues; strong demonstrations; rest between maneuvers. Anxiety down, reproducibility up.
Enforce quality control: Acceptability and repeatability criteria aren’t optional. Reject poor efforts and retest.
Interpret in context: Reference values, lower limits of normal, and pre/post bronchodilator changes need clinical framing, not raw numbers alone.
Document carefully: Note meds, effort, symptoms, and test conditions that could skew results.
How to Display Pulmonary Function Testing Skills on Your Resume
3. Oxygen Therapy
Oxygen therapy adds supplemental O2 to correct hypoxemia. Simple idea, big consequences when overdone or underdelivered.
Why It's Important
It stabilizes patients in respiratory and cardiac illness, supports metabolism, and buys time while underlying issues are treated.
How to Improve Oxygen Therapy Skills
Targeted, not maximal.
Set targets: Most adults 92–96% SpO2. For chronic hypercapnic risk (e.g., COPD), 88–92%. Avoid hyperoxia—harm hides there.
Choose the right interface: Nasal cannula, Venturi mask, non-rebreather, or high-flow nasal cannula based on severity and FiO2 needs.
Titrate and reassess: Adjust to effect using SpO2 and, when needed, ABGs. Reduce flow as patients recover.
Mind safety: Fire risk education, humidification for comfort, and skin checks to prevent breakdown.
Teach the why: Home oxygen users benefit from training on equipment handling, travel planning, and alarm responses.
How to Display Oxygen Therapy Skills on Your Resume
4. Aerosol Medication Administration
Delivering bronchodilators, steroids, and other inhaled agents via MDI/DPI or nebulizer demands precise technique and device-patient matching.
Why It's Important
Right drug, right lung region, right timing. Faster relief, fewer side effects, better control.
How to Improve Aerosol Medication Administration Skills
Small tweaks, big gains.
Perfect the technique: Spacers for MDIs, strong inspiratory effort for DPIs, proper mask fit or mouthpiece seal with nebulizers.
Match device to patient: Consider age, dexterity, cognition, and coordination. Simple beats fancy when adherence is at stake.
Coach and re-check: Demonstrate, have patients teach-back, then re-evaluate periodically. Technique decays without touch-ups.
Time it right: Sequence bronchodilators before steroids; space doses; synchronize with pulmonary rehab when possible.
Maintain and clean: Nebulizer hygiene and timely replacement of parts prevent infections and poor delivery.
How to Display Aerosol Medication Administration Skills on Your Resume
5. Airway Management
Keeping the airway patent, protected, and ventilated—noninvasive or invasive—sits at the core of acute respiratory care.
Why It's Important
Rapid, competent airway management prevents hypoxia, aspiration, and cardiac arrest. Seconds count, technique matters.
How to Improve Airway Management Skills
Practice deliberately: Simulation with video laryngoscopy, bag-mask ventilation drills, and supraglottic device insertion builds calm under pressure.
Prepare kits smartly: Size up equipment, backup devices, suction ready, capnography available. A checklist saves lives.
Use physiology-first strategies: Preoxygenate well, optimize positioning (ear-to-sternal-notch), and consider apneic oxygenation in high-risk intubations.
Confirm and secure: Continuous waveform capnography for confirmation, then meticulous tube fixation and skin care.
Work as a team: Clear role assignment and closed-loop communication cut errors when the room gets loud.
How to Display Airway Management Skills on Your Resume
6. CPAP/BiPAP
CPAP delivers a steady positive pressure. BiPAP gives a higher inspiratory and lower expiratory pressure. Both offload work of breathing and splint airways open.
Why It's Important
For sleep apnea, COPD exacerbations, cardiogenic pulmonary edema, and more, noninvasive support can avert intubation and speed recovery.
How to Improve CPAP/BiPAP Skills
Prioritize comfort: Meticulous mask fitting, strap tension that seals without bruising, and heated humidification to tame dryness.
Dial in pressures: Start tolerably, use ramp features, and titrate to ease dyspnea, improve ventilation, and reduce leak.
Leverage device features: Exhalation relief, auto-titrating modes, leak compensation—use the tools, don’t ignore them.
Educate and follow up: Early troubleshooting for leak, claustrophobia, skin irritation, and aerophagia prevents abandonment.
Offer alternatives: Nasal pillows, full-face masks, or hybrid interfaces when one style just won’t fly.
How to Display CPAP/BiPAP Skills on Your Resume
7. Mechanical Ventilation
Mechanical ventilation supports or replaces spontaneous breathing via invasive or noninvasive interfaces. It’s powerful—and potentially injurious—if handled carelessly.
Why It's Important
It preserves life during respiratory failure, buys time for healing, and enables targeted therapies.
How to Improve Mechanical Ventilation Skills
Optimize synchrony: Read waveforms. Tweak triggers, rise time, and cycling. Address auto-PEEP and patient discomfort quickly.
Set thoughtfully: Use lung-protective volumes, appropriate PEEP titration, and keep an eye on plateau and driving pressures.
Prevent harm: Minimize sedation when possible, follow VAP prevention bundles, and mobilize early.
Plan the arc: From stabilization to weaning—daily sedation interruption when safe, SBTs, extubation readiness, and post-extubation support (HFNC or NIV) when indicated.
Audit and learn: Case reviews, protocol updates, and skills refreshers keep practice sharp and current.
How to Display Mechanical Ventilation Skills on Your Resume
8. Arterial Blood Gas Analysis
ABG analysis measures oxygenation, ventilation, and acid–base status. It translates physiology into decisions that change care plans quickly.
Why It's Important
ABGs guide ventilator settings, oxygen titration, and metabolic evaluations. Fast interpretation prevents delays and missteps.
How to Improve Arterial Blood Gas Analysis Skills
Master the framework: Stepwise analysis—pH, PaCO2, HCO3−, anion gap, oxygenation, and compensation patterns.
Correlate clinically: Pair ABG results with vitals, waveform capnography, and exam findings. Numbers live in context.
Sample correctly: Use proper heparinization, remove air bubbles quickly, and analyze without delay to avoid spurious results.
Know limitations: Recognize when venous samples suffice and when arterial precision is mandatory.
Practice often: Case drills and peer review of tough interpretations build speed and accuracy.
How to Display Arterial Blood Gas Analysis Skills on Your Resume
9. Neonatal Resuscitation
For newborns who don’t transition smoothly, neonatal resuscitation prioritizes warmth, effective ventilation, and circulation support—rapidly and calmly.
Why It's Important
Early, effective ventilation prevents hypoxic injury and improves survival. Seconds are precious; preparedness matters.
How to Improve Neonatal Resuscitation Skills
Train to the current NRP: Regular updates and simulation sessions keep algorithms and hands-on skills fresh.
Perfect ventilation: Proper mask seal, gentle pressures, and prompt escalation to advanced airways when needed.
Standardize equipment checks: T-piece or bag readiness, oxygen blending, suction, and temperature management before every delivery.
Work as a unit: Clear roles, concise commands, and debriefs after events to hardwire improvements.
How to Display Neonatal Resuscitation Skills on Your Resume
10. Patient Education
Education turns passive patients into partners. Simple words, practical steps, repeated and reinforced.
Why It's Important
It boosts adherence, reduces readmissions, and improves confidence with inhalers, oxygen, airway clearance, and lifestyle changes.
How to Improve Patient Education Skills
Assess first: Health literacy, language needs, cultural considerations, and barriers. Start where the patient is.
Use plain language: No jargon. Visuals and demonstrations beat lengthy lectures.
Teach-back: Ask patients to show or explain the steps back to you. Gaps surface quickly.
Hands-on practice: Spacer use, nebulizer assembly, airway clearance techniques—skills stick when practiced.
Set SMART goals: Small, measurable steps with a plan for follow-up. Celebrate wins; adjust setbacks.
Document and revisit: Track what was taught and what needs reinforcement at the next touchpoint.
How to Display Patient Education Skills on Your Resume
11. Pulmonary Rehabilitation
Structured exercise, education, and behavior change—tailored to respiratory disease. It’s whole-person care with measurable gains.
Why It's Important
It improves dyspnea, exercise tolerance, mood, and quality of life. Hospitalizations drop. Confidence rises.
How to Improve Pulmonary Rehabilitation Skills
Personalize programs: Baseline assessments guide aerobic, strength, and inspiratory muscle training with sensible progression.
Track metrics: Six-minute walk distance, dyspnea scores, and patient-reported outcomes guide adjustments.
Integrate education: Inhaler technique, exacerbation action plans, nutrition basics, energy conservation, and smoking cessation support.
Leverage hybrid models: Combine in-person and remote sessions with wearables or simple logs to maintain momentum.
Address mental health: Screen for anxiety/depression and connect patients with resources; adherence improves when minds are supported.
How to Display Pulmonary Rehabilitation Skills on Your Resume
12. ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation)
ECMO routes blood through an external circuit for gas exchange (and sometimes circulatory support), then returns it to the patient. VV for lungs. VA for heart and lungs. High stakes, high coordination.
Why It's Important
For severe, refractory failure, ECMO buys time—bridging to recovery, transplant, or definitive intervention.
How to Improve ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) Skills
Train deliberately: Regular simulations, circuit labs, and scenario-based drills sharpen responses to alarms and emergencies.
Know the circuit: Cannula position checks, flow dynamics, sweep gas adjustments, anticoagulation targets, and troubleshooting hemolysis or clot burden.
Standardize protocols: Anticoagulation, oxygenator change criteria, weaning pathways, and transport procedures reduce variance.
Watch the details: Neuro checks, limb perfusion assessments, meticulous line care, and infection prevention.
Communicate cleanly: Shared mental models with perfusion, RTs, nurses, and physicians keep the circuit—and the team—steady.
How to Display ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) Skills on Your Resume
